2017 Goals Update #1

As I’m writing this monthly goals update, January 2017 is officially behind us and we’ve got only 11 months left to reach our goals! As usual each year, a lot of people are willing to set new goals. In fact, did you know that around 45% of people set themselves some New Year’s resolutions, but around 25% of people already abandoned in the first seven days of January? That’s scary and I don’t want to be included in that statistic.

If you’re new here, every month I’m detailing my progress on my goals for the year. I’ve split my goals for 2017 in three different categories: financial, blogging and personal goals. You may be wondering why I would want to share my goals with the rest of the world? This is essentially for the same reason that I share my financial stats, which is for accountability and motivation purposes. At the end of the year I’ll be able to track and measure my overall progress regarding these goals. This is also for my readers to be aware that having financial goals in place is key to success.

Financial Goals Update #1

Goal #1 – Increase our emergency fund to $2,000 (30%)

This one is pretty much on auto-pilot as I’m contributing $100 each paycheck to our emergency fund. We’re currently at $1,505 (up from $1,304) and should be able to complete this goal in early March. As I’m planning to reach at least one month-covered expenses in this account, I will probably be upping this goal amount in a few weeks.

Goal #2 – Increase our combined Net Worth by 100% (8%)

As of this post writing we just crossed the $13,000 mark (up from $12,207). With a target of $22,000 by the end of 2017, this leaves us with around $9,000 to contribute before the year ends, which amounts to around $375 per paycheck. This is way higher than my actual contributions so I’ll have to make some one-time contributions to reach this goal, but in the upcoming weeks I’ll be getting a nice bonus from work so that shouldn’t be a problem at all!

Goal #3 – Contribute $10,000 to my retirements accounts (4%)

This amount is around the maximum I can contribute for the year 2017 to my Wealthsimple RRSP account (which is 18% of my 2016 earned income). As with our emergency fund, this one is on auto-pilot but to reach my target amount I’ll have to make some one-time contributions if I want to stay on track for this goal.

Goal #4 – Save at least 20% of our income as an average for the year (In progress)

As this is a moving amount each month, I won’t know for sure before the year ends, but as of this post writing we’re currently at a low 12% saving rate for January. Still a lot of progress has to be made on our side to reach this specific goal.

Blogging Goals Update #1

Goal #5 – Publish at least one blog post every ten days (8%)

As explained in my last post My First 4 Months of Blogging – Slow & Steady, I’m finally done with the initial setup of this blog and I’m now purely focusing on content. So this one should be an easy one. I’ve already written 3 posts in January, and I’ve got 6 scheduled for February and March. I’ll even try to post one or two more if I’m not too busy at work.

Goal #6 – Have at least 100 subscribers (5%)

I’ve just started to get some subscribers to my newsletter. I’m planning to build a complete post series delivered once people are subscribed, in order to grow my subscribers.

Goal #7 – Generate $500 in blog income (1%)

I’ve only started monetizing this website since a few weeks and I’ve just hit $5 in blog-related income. There’s definitely a long way to go before I can be proud of this one!

Goal #8 – Learn more about SEO (In progress)

Since implementing AMP and Facebook Instant Article on this blog, I’ve not been able to learn much more on SEO. Definitely planning on doing more SEO-stuff in February!

Personal Goals Update #1

Goal #9 – Run at least two more official half marathons races and one full marathon race (In Progress)

I’m already registered for a half marathon in a few months, and I’ve also applied for the NYC marathon drawing. In case you did not know, to run the NYC marathon, you have to be either a high performing athlete, run for charity (which cost quite a lot of money) or be selected at the drawing. It’s been two years in a row that I’ve unsuccessfully applied to the drawing, but I’m hoping that this year will be the one! I’m even more ready to hit the ground there since Mrs. FFG bought me a few weeks ago for my birthday an amazing Fitbit Charge 2, which I absolutely love!

Goal #10 – Go on at least one big trip (In Progress)

We’re still debating with Mrs. FFG to where we want to be heading to this year. This might be once again California as we’re big fans of the San Diego area, or we’d also like going back to Europe for a few weeks this summer (hopefully longer than our usual Christmas vacation).

Goal #11 – Take at least three weeks of vacation with my girlfriend and/or my family (In progress)

I have not taken any vacation yet. But we already planned a few trips for the upcoming weekends in our area.

Okay so there you have it, my detailed progression of my 2017 goals. There’s not as much progress as I had hoped for, but I’ll take any form of progress over no progress at all! I definitely want to take advantage of everything I learned from starting a blog to continue moving forward. I also want to leverage everything I learned in 2016 to make 2017 a great year!

– Vincent

So this is where I’m at so far in 2017! What about you? Are you already crushing your 2017 goals?

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I like the goals you’ve set – especially increasing your networth by 100%. I personally have to keep my goals down to just a few or I lose focus but wish I could tackle more. Good luck with everything!

Hello Alexa and thanks for dropping by! Yes +100% can seem a lot, but since it’s still a low figure it’s definitely doable. I understand what you mean about having way too many goals, but I’m used to multi-tasking so 12 goals still seem a fair number for me!